During the signing ceremony of the contracts of the first Support Program for the Production of Renewable Hydrogen and other Renewable Gases, within the scope of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), Prime Minister António Costa said that the production of green hydrogen will allow the country not only to produce the energy it consumes, but also to become an exporter country. António Costa also described hydrogen production in Portugal as a "structural change in the economy".

He added that "one of the country's chronic problems is its dependence on energy", aggravated by the war in Ukraine. "When we are freeing ourselves from fossil fuels, we are not only freeing ourselves from fuels that emit carbon into the environment, we are also contributing decisively to having a more balanced balance of payments and trade," he said.

Costa also said that with the projects, now signed, the country could become a true energy exporter. "This is a structural change for the future of our economy, which will transform the country for the next decades, at least, and this is an opportunity that we cannot miss," he said.

What about the European market?

The President of the Government explained that "the best demonstration that there is an effective interest of the European market" in hydrogen produced in the Iberian Peninsula is the fact that Germany wants to join the hydrogen green corridor, developed by France, Portugal and Spain.

"If there is a market, if there is infrastructure, if there are financial resources to support it, we really have to bet," he said.

Companies

The Prime Minister also thanked, in his speech, the companies that saw their projects approved today, although only partially funded by the PRR. "You make a great effort on the part of the private sector. It is an excellent example that, with good public policies, with clear objectives, stable and transparent regulatory rules, with the streamlining and simplification of the licensing process and the right combination of public support and the ability to mobilize the private sector, we managed to transform the profile of the Portuguese economy in a sector as critical as the energy sector," he said.

The 25 projects now signed total funds of 102 million euros from the PRR and will enable the reduction of 167,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Most of the projects "are not on the coast or in large urban centers", but close to industrial buildings and inland.